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To: Thatcherite

Hey - I am just stating what I believe to be fact. The Bible says that God breathed into man the breath of life. I just cannot remember that last time I walked out into the back yard and found something living that did not have that ability before. And asking whether this would shake my faith is the same as asking what would happen if a rock from Mars fell onto my head and knocked me out. Possible? I would not rule it out. Probable? Not very. I do not look at it as a limitation on God - I look on it as a limitation God has put on mankind and the rest of His creation. He and only He is the Author of creation and of life. Seems pretty simple and straightforward to me. But hey - I have been wrong plenty of times!


76 posted on 02/10/2005 10:16:17 PM PST by DennisR (Look around - there are countless observable clues that God exists)
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To: DennisR
Hey - I am just stating what I believe to be fact. The Bible says that God breathed into man the breath of life. I just cannot remember that last time I walked out into the back yard and found something living that did not have that ability before.

Abiogenesis only has to have happened once on a trillion-trillion planets in 14 billion years to get us to the point where we are debating this now. It doesn't have to be likely or easy. Most scientists think that random abiogenesis is incredibly unlikely, but that is not the same thing as impossible.

And asking whether this would shake my faith is the same as asking what would happen if a rock from Mars fell onto my head and knocked me out. Possible? I would not rule it out. Probable? Not very. I do not look at it as a limitation on God - I look on it as a limitation God has put on mankind and the rest of His creation. He and only He is the Author of creation and of life. Seems pretty simple and straightforward to me. But hey - I have been wrong plenty of times!

Very interesting, and I have to say you sound more open-minded and less dogmatic on this subject than some who reject the possibility of non-divine abiogenesis. I personally missed the bit in the Bible where it says that God limited men's abilities such that they cannot make life. At one time some people believed that to fly, or even to put lightning rods on buildings was to challenge or mock God. Now such beliefs would be considered risible by most.

You say that you don't rule out the possibility, which is interesting when you also say that only God can make life. It sounds like you aren't comfortable with entirely rejecting the possiblity of man-made life because you suspect that it might be within human compass, but you don't want to contemplate it because that might trouble your Biblical interpretation.

Incidentally scientists could easily create life in the laboratory, as Alan Turing pointed out 60 years ago... they just need the research team to contain both men and women, and 9 months of funding. ;)

132 posted on 02/12/2005 1:18:44 AM PST by Thatcherite (Conservative and Biblical Literalist are not synonymous)
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